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The heroes failed at Parliament, but that in no way brought about an end to the incursions thorough the cities borders. Either their bosses were trying to salvage something from the situation by pushing into the city, or there was too much political momentum placed into the mobilization, or… ah hell, it could be anything and it really doesn't matter. I have a bunch of government capes storming the city, Enclave leaders — and other groups — retreating to bunker up where they can, minus Wells who would not be talking to her children ever again, and Father Evans who was pulled out along with the heroes.

On that note, a cluster of Zerglings veers away from the rapidly forming front lines and towards St. Brigid's Church. It's not a large group of survivors from what I have seen of them previously, but the church is part of a larger complex, and deep within the city. I won't allow it to become a bastion of government interference in Canberra.

Much of what used to be the attached school is pulled open, like something lifted the entire roof off the structure and removed it from existence. The church building itself is however mostly intact minus the shattered and patched windows, many of them boarded up where material was in short supply. My zerglings swarm over the street that marks the edge where my Creep had stopped advancing on the human occupied building.

Flickers of movement are just visible from within the structure, a filthy curtain is shifted, followed by shout as someone inside spots the wave of muscle and carapace descending on them. I leave the Zerglings with a simple intent, and switch away to other, more critical fights.

The front-line is a meat grinder. Zergling swarms drag down any capes caught out of position, and Roaches break the back of most of the tougher groups. In the air, Mutalisks and flying capes are duking it out. What my Mutalisks lack in numbers, they make up in backup from swarms of Scourges and surprisingly, range.

Yeah… range. I'd been concerned about the reach of my organisms attacks, but… The military I had expected hasn't shown up. Yet. No air-force sweeping the skies clear with jets and flack cannons, no artillery bombardment from miles away either. Just… a lot of capes.

I can't explain the distinct lack except… Thank Ziz for Cauldron actively marginalizing non-parahuman forces I guess? Most capes it turns out are either some variant of melee or relatively short range... Even the ones that should be blasting from a distance seem to have an unhealthy — and fatal — need to get into brick throwing range, or at least completely fail to kite when my organisms close on them.

What started as a concerted and co-ordinated push into Canberra is faltering. Parahumans are abandoning the offensive and falling back, leaving openings that allow my Zerglings to swarm through and surround other groups. Worse — for the humans — they're visibly tiring as the evening aproaches, while my forces are as tireless as they are endless. Not that they are either of those, but certainly much more so then the humans.

I focus in on individual points of stiff resistance, usually small teams of capes bunkered up in dilapidated buildings overgrown with creep. I can feel their every move, with a bit of strain I can feel the vibrations of their shouts and cries against the organic surface around them.

"Keep them back Tetris!" Greta shouts. A wave of her hand and the gravity field she set up earlier amps up, the exoskeletons of the swarming creatures collapsing with a crack like gunshots.

"I'm trying Gravity Sink, I can only create so many blocks at a time!" Comes the response from the young man with the arcade themed costume. Another of his blocky force fields materialize in the air and drop into place between two others, crushing the leading edge of another surge of creatures.

"Should I swap to your power set? We could double the area…"

"No!" Both Greta and Tetris cry out at the uncertain question. "With Molten down, you're our best Blaster right now Mimic!"

"R-Right… Sorry…"

"It's fine, just- Shit, the blocks to my left are about to time out! Saturate the area!"

"Yep, I got it!" The stream of magma comes out of Mimic's hands just after a section of the glowing force field flashes and disappears. The liquid pool of lava creates a blockade that would keep most enemies at a healthy distance. The hoard around them however shows no fear, pressing up right to the edge of the bubbling surface, and many try to leap or fly over. Another of Greta's gravity fields activates over the area. It's not powered up enough to cause harm on it's own, but it forces those attempting to cross above the molten surface down into it, where they screech as their flesh ignites and burns while they thrash around. Whatever they may be, they can't resist being burned to a crisp.

"Aqua, please tell me Molten is stable enough to retreat?" Greta calls back over her shoulder. The blue haired blaster is kneeling over the fifth member of their team, her usual hard-water constructs absent as she steps in to her secondary role as emergency healer.

"No way! I've neutralized the acid, but… I'm moving her blood manually, her heart-"

"More of those big tanky acid spitters coming!" Mimics shout interrupts, forcing Greta to look back out at the field in front of them.

"Greta, I won't have enough blocks to keep their acid spit off of us!" Tetris shouts out, glancing a their dying — no, injured, she'll be fine — team mate. "We need help, wasn't Team 13 supposed to join up with us by now?"

"We're pinned down and need backup!" Veil shouts into the radio on his shoulder. Overload is sitting on the ground next to him, his breaths short and ragged, blood dripping much too rapidly from his nose. Carnivore is charging about rending apart the creatures with her own monstrous form, trying to thin the hoard as they seize and twitch under Overloads seizure inducing power. She can't keep up, for every one she kills, more arrive. Some of the small exploding fliers are trying to dive-bomb her even as their bodies seize up.

"Team 13, proceed to area D-85 and back up team 9." Comes the unwelcome response from the radio.

Veil rips the offending piece of tech off himself and nearly throws it out into the twitching pile of monsters. One of the larger flying ones dips too low and crashes to the ground, it's wings and legs twitching grotesquely. Instead he shouts into it, his voice carrying the twinge of hysteria as Overload groans at the increased strain of more creatures entering his range. "Command I repeat, this is Team 13! We are pinned down and reduced to only Veil, Overload, and Carnivore! Everyone else is dead! We can't relocate! We need backup!"

"Negative Team 13, no other team is positioned to provide backup. Team 9 is located… Three-hundred and fifty meters to your west, join up with them and push for Op Point Baker."

"Three hundred and fifty meters…" Veil looks over at Overload and dismisses the order about moving on Baker, pushing deeper into enemy territory is madness! "Carnivore, cover my back, I'm going to carry Overload, we're heading a few blocks west, then we'll try to pull back to the border zone!"

Carnivore can't speak in her altered state, but she chuffs and pulls back to crouch beside Veil.

"C'mon Overload, keep it up a little longer." Veil mutters, carefully picking up the groaning cape in princess carry, trying to keep from jostling him too much. There's blood leaking from his ears too, he notices.

They two capes run — or in Veils case, stagger — out of the crumbling building, Veil trying to avoid the twitching claws and teeth of their enemies. He looks up, hoping to see some friendly fliers against the orange evening sky. All he sees is the giant dragonfly like monsters and swirling clouds of what he's come to call 'flying grenades'.

"Shit… Carnivore… If more of those come at us, think you can lure them down into Overloads range?" He gasps, re-adjusting his grip on his friend, nearly slipping on the squishy growth coating the ground.

Carnivore grunts in a manner Veil has come to read as dubious, while ripping the scythe off a creature that seemed a bit too co-ordinated in it's twitching.

A shame I didn't get a chance to talk to some of the more reasonable — or at least less dogmatically set — enclave leaders. Well at least I got the main points out, I suppose the rest is on them. If they choose to act against me, in favor of the government that abandoned them… A team of capes could only delay the inevitable at St. Brigid's. I think it's telling that no effort was made to pull the non-combatants out before or during the fight.

With my swarm engaged in pushing the parahuman incursion out of Canbera, I switch focus to check on Abzu and make sure it - he - I safely made it back to the bunker.

I find myself sitting in a corner of one of the hatchery rooms, uninjured — which is a relief. There's a lot less organisms swarming around then usual, most have been deployed to the battle. A series of wet pops signals another batch of Zerglings, Roaches, Mutalisks, and even Scourge Crawler bursting out of their cocoons and charging — or in the Scourge Crawlers case, slowly er… crawling — towards the bunkers exit tunnel. More larvae take their place and cocoon up to prepare the next batch.

The interior of the bunker has changed a lot since I first woke here. The bioluminescent creep of course is one thing, but even many of the walls and floors have been ripped down by the incessant work of my Ratlings. What was a complex maze of rooms spread over multiple floors, has turned into a complex web of interconnected caverns. It's hard to even recognize the place was built by humans once.

Most of those caverns contain a hatchery, and hundreds of cocoons cover every empty piece of floor, wall, even the ceiling. The last few of my raider prisoners are also strung up about, mostly next to the chamber that houses my main body. Refilling my stock of prisoners has been going… not so well. The battle is going in my favor, but it's not quite the walk in the park that makes capture and transport of hostile capes easy, anytime I manage to grab someone with a Mutalisk, the rest focus on downing it and rescuing their friend or teammate.

While I dug out the many barracks, garage spaces, warehouses, and… well I don't even know what role many of the rooms originally had, I did leave intact the roomier living quarters — once intended for the bunkers top brass, or political elite I guess — and a firing range.

It's at that firing range that I find Emily sitting cross legged on the divider wearing just a shirt and shorts, glaring at one of my prisoners who is strung up to the far wall with creep. Ah, I vaguely recall her asking me to move one of them here while I was focused on managing the battle topside.

I'm about to call out to her, but think better of it. Instead I sneak up with all the stealth I can, which is quite a lot when the floor is a soft carpet of spongy creep. My arms wrap around Emily and I pull her off the divider and hug her to my body.

She screams like a banshee — if the banshee was also a preteen girl. "Hey Emily, what's got you so angry with that particular raider?" I ask casually.

"Hmph! Alexei! You scarred me!" She huffs once she recognizes it's me.

"Yes, that is the point of sneaking up on you." I laugh, but relax my arms so she can move. "So what are you doing here? If you want that particular raider dead for some reason, there's a lot faster ways to do it then glaring at him from across the range."

"I know that! Jeeze. I'm training… or practicing… or…" She squirms out of my hold, then grabs my hand and pulls me away from the firing range.

"Is… something wrong?" I ask as we walk down the creep covered corridor.

"No… yes… it's… I've had these powers for… weeks now, and I've… killed people. People who deserved it… people who didn't…. Mom…" Her voice cracks at the last.

I squeeze her hand gently, wary of Abzu's strength compared to her small frail hand in mine. "It was an accident and… your mom would be happy you're alive and unharmed right? Parents will sacrifice everything for their kids." Sometimes to an unreasonable degree, but I don't see any reason to bring that up.

"I… I know. I wish it hadn't happened…. I miss her… but… It was an… accident but…" Tears are running down her cheeks. I stop and kneel, wiping her face and pulling her into another hug. I don't really know what to say that I haven't already but…

"It's not your fault, Emily. Powers… they trigger in traumatic moments… and often in ways that really don't help as much as we would like them to."

Her arms aren't long enough to return the hug completely, but she tries, clinging to me. I grin and pick her up again into a princess carry, letting her bury her face against my chest.

"Mmm… It's all that stupid birds fault. If she didn't show up, the city would still be standing, mom would be alive… I'd be in school right now with Matilda and Willow and Taylor and… Mrs. Wynter and…" Emily mutters into my chest, listing off… I think everyone she knew.

"Emily… I don't think the Simurgh showed up here just to ruin your life in particular."

"No… and… I did meet you. I was just… Every time my power gets someone killed… it's when I don't mean to. An accident. I was trying to… talk myself into… well… making that raider die… because I wanted to kill him. To walk up and watch him… melt. On purpose. I'm not much good to you if… I can't kill, right?"

"Oh Emily, trust me I can handle all the killing needed. Yes your power could come in handy for some specific scenarios, but you can take your time. Ah there's probably some psychologist that could explain it properly and all but… just do what makes you happy and comfortable."

"Mmm… I'll try." She rests her head on my chest and we're quite for a while before she speaks up again. "Hey… you know all about my trigger… what… what about yours? How… did you trigger?"

"Hmm…" What to tell her? Will Contessa pop up the moment I say anything about powers in a bottle, about Cauldron's existence? Eh if she hasn't come to do anything about me yet… "I didn't."

"What?" She sits up in my arms, twisting to look at my face. "Are you an alien come to conquer the world?"

"Haha, no… well I guess sort of." I laugh. "I'm still from Earth, just not this particular one. Portal opened under my feat, dropped me right into the middle of the Enbringer attack."

"Oh I learned about Earth… Alpha… in school?"

"Nope, not mine. My world doesn't have contact with this one. I think. Not officially anyways. So there I am, surrounded by burning rubble and explosions and… eh you know. Bad times, and there's this giant angel just floating there while actual superheroes… ah that's what we call capes, except my my world it's all just pretend. Actual superheroes flying around fighting it."

"What did you do?"

"What any sane civilian does. Turn my back on the battle and hoof it for the hills. I didn't get far. Despite all the chaos, I stumbled onto a… perfectly undamaged vial of this weird liquid stuff."

"Oooh ooh, did you drink it?"

"I wasn't going to! Then the Simurgh made it rather clear that my presence was not an accident and I either drink the vial or become a casualty. It's hard to misunderstand a couple of truck sized projectiles and one laser beam cutting you off every time you take a step in any direction. One thing lead to another, and here we are."

Emily is quite for a while, her eyes locked on my face. After a few minutes she rests her head against me once more. "Huh… Probably… shouldn't tell that to anyone."

"Not planning to. You, I figured, ought to know." I tell her, kissing the top of her head.

"Oh, in here!" She suddenly cries out, pointing to one of the larger living quarters. I vaguely recall a Ratling spending hours — and all it's claws — to scratch the name 'Emily' into the steel door.

I push the door open with my shoulder, carrying Emily inside.

"Mmm… like a bride… coming home…" Emily mumbles against me, and I can feel her skin heating up. I can also smell the pheromones pouring off her body.

Practically on it's own, I find my head coming down to kiss Emily on the lips, just as she turns her head up to meet me. Her eyes are a bit red from recent tears, her lip are soft, and her small tongue presses against my mouth. She tastes sweet as usual but I find myself enjoying it so much more from a more… humanoid perspective. Her hands roam wherever she can reach over my chest, neck, and back. My tentacles flow forward and wrap around her, freeing my own hands to gently rub along her back and legs, finally gently squeezing her petite bum. With the size disparity, it's a nearly perfect fit for my palm.

Finally we break the kiss, and I pull back. I think about asking her if she's sure, if she wants this. To promise I won't ditch her even if she decides not to. I hold my silence instead, we've been over it enough times, we've done enough, it would just damage the mood and the scent of her desire is enough to tell me all I need to know.

I lower us both to her bed — or rather the bed-shaped creep growth that she's been using as such. My lips find her jaw line and trace light kisses along it from her hear to her chin, and back to her lips again. Her hands dig into my feathery scalp, and she moans something against my mouth. My tentacles grip at her shorts and pull them down her legs, leaving her exposed.

"… Alexei…" Emily moans, one of her hands drifting down to cover her newly exposed pussy for a moment, before she instead rests it on the bulge of my crotch. I let the blood flow increase, and the head of my dick quickly slides out of it's sheath into her hand. "Oh! It feels so… weird…" Her bright blue eyes meet mine with a bit of hesitation, then she squirms around until into a sixty-nine position atop of me. Or well… close to such. While her head is down by my dick, which she's curiously exploring with her hands, the only thing within reach of my head is her knees. Being so much larger than the girl has disadvantages when it comes to positioning, it turns out.

"I've never seen a real one before…" Emily says quietly, prodding and squeezing me with cautious curiosity. "Just pictures… and stuff… Umm… it feels good right, when I… play with it like this? Umm… in the vids it was… Hmm…"

I groan as she gives my shaft a hard squeeze and experimental pump. It's easy to tell she's got little idea of what she's doing, and if it wasn't for the effective brute rating this body has by nature it would probably be more painful then anything. "Gentler, but you can mostly treat it the same way you have my main body's tentacles."

"Oops! Mmm sorry…" She says, her grip instantly going so soft she's barely touching me.

"It's fine Emily, don't worry. Here, let me…" I wrap a tentacle around her hand, and constrict a little, pressing her hand between the tentacles and shaft. "Like that is fine, but you can't hurt me so feel free to experiment a bit, I don't mind being your test subject for a bit." Ziz knows it's not difficult to stay hard when there's a cute girl playing with my dick, even if she is mostly fumbling around. Also, conscious control means I could keep this up longer then humanly possible even with no stimulation whatsoever.

Her skin is soft and tangy with sweat as my sensory tentacles wrap around her body, tasting every inch of her. Something warm and wet touches the head of my dick, and I twitch in response, to a giggle from Emily. "Ehehe… is that good? Do you like that?"

"I do, feel free to-" A warm wet mouth wraps around the head of my dick. Oh well that's nice, even if there's a bit more teeth involved then ideal. My tentacles writhe over her body and I buck my hips a bit, trying to push deeper into her small mouth on instinct. Suddenly there's an odd sensation and sound from what Emily is doing, and I can't help but chuckle. "Emily… despite the term being a blow job… you're actually supposed to suck, not…"

The sensation disappears, and Emily sits up on my chest, looking over her shoulder at me, her face an expression of mortified embarrassment. "Oh my god, I'm sorry!"

I tighten my tentacles around her giving her a tight hug, and then sit up, depositing her in my lap. The fact my dick ends up pressed between her thighs is not entirely a coincidence. "It's alright Emily, I think nearly everyone has had that assumption at one time in their youth." I have to bend my neck down to an uncomfortable degree, but I manage to catch her lips into another kiss.

This has been nice, but I really should be paying more attention to what is going on on the surface. A quick check shows that most of the parahuman intruders have been repelled… many dead, a few captured, and my swarm is closing on the dome foundation which has previously marked the edge of the quarantine zone so-

"Alexei…" Emily rubs her thighs against my shaft, which instantly focuses my mind on Abzu. "I… want to… try going… all the way today."

Hearing her whisper, my tentacles writhe in barely controlled desire. "Alright. You can be on top, that way you can stay in control and only go as far as you're comfortable, alright?"

"N-n." She shakes her head, her hair swirling around her. "I want you on top."

I roll to the side, depositing her onto he bed, raising up on my tentacles and arms over top of her petite body. "Are you sure Emily? I'm much bigger then you…"

Emily looks away and nods. "I trust you Alexei."

What the horny little naked girl wants — when did she lose the shirt anyways? — the horny little girl gets. I ain't no anime protagonist to constantly question the judgment of the girl that wants to have sex. One of my sensory tentacles slips down between her legs, sliding it's length along her pussy. She certainly feels wet enough, and… the taste of her is amazing. Maybe a little delay before we get to the main course, I'm feeling like an appetizer first.

"The operation is a failure. Order our capes to withdraw to the dome perimeter, we'll regroup and plan for a new push once we have time to analyze the situation." Julia Gillard orders, her voice straining.

"A new push? Are you serious? A quarter of our capes are dead, most of the rest are going to be out of commission for weeks or months, depending on what healers we can get on it!" Rober Vargas doesn't yell, he would never yell at the women that got him his job, but he could certainly state it with… high volume. "The villains we persuaded to take part just abandoned the field and left, stating it doesn't fall under Endbringer Truce!"

"That… fine, we'll get healers, we'll reach out to the Americans and see if we can send some of our capes to their healers. Cover it as… oh I don't know, make something up but don't mention Canberra! Perhaps we can still halt this at it's source, I reached out to a specialist."

Jaxon Magrath clears his throat, getting the attention of the politicians, who both cease their not-argument to give him a short look.

"What is it, going to suggest sending in your toy soldiers? It's a cape problem, capes can deal with it." Vargas spits, perhaps more harshly then he usually speaks. The stress of the operation becoming such a complete failure must be getting to him. A military man would know better how to deal with defeat. With the weight of the dead.

Jaxon ignores the man and checks on Gillard. She seems hesitant, and for a moment he thinks she might see reason. Then she shakes her head. "Have your men remain at their posts General. While the setback is… unprecedented, the Ministry of Parahuman Affairs and it's departments have my full confidence."

Jaxon can only grimace at the usual answer, but this time he's almost happy to hear it. "In that case, I must inform you that as of five minutes ago, containment of the quarantine zone has failed. The leading edge of the Canberra Swarm has cleared the dome foundation and overrun the established perimeter."

Both Gillard and Vargas went pale, Gillard almost choking on her tongue as as she inhaled sharply. "What? Over-run… perimeter?! How…? Maintaining the perimeter is your job! Your only job!"

Jaxon walks over to a display, and punches in a short command. The image changes to a live view of the dome foundation, which is swarming with tens of thousands of blue armored creatures. "Ever seen a kid hit a wasp nest with a stick? You two picked the biggest wasp nest on the goddamned planet, and lined up most of our capes to swing at it like it's the Baseball League Championship of the decade!"

Gillard swallows loudly, chewing at her lip aggressively before speaking. "General Magrath… can you re-establish the perimeter? You'll have my full support in the matter." It sounds like it physically hurts her to say it, and as much as Jaxon relishes hearing those words…

"With what army, madam Prime Minister? You and your predecessor's constant budget cuts to our brave armed forces has whittled us down to little more then a fancy militia. That is beyond our resources now." He gestures to the display, just in time to catch the headless body of Skyhigh crash down in front of the camera, blocking the view with her mangled neck. "I'm not sending my boys into that with little more than a rifle and a uniform. I've already ordered a full retreat from the perimeter."

Silence rains in the command room, everyone else keeping their heads down. Finally Gillard asks the question that he knew was coming. "How… how far are you… are we retreating?"

Jaxon Magrath isn't proud of the answer. "Until they stop."

I make my way down Emily's body, kissing her neck and lavishing her pink nipples with attention both from my tongue and my tentacles. Her moans turn into slight giggles when I make my way around her belly button.

"Mmm… are you going to… ooh…"

I consider doing a replay of our first time, skipping her pussy and starting over from her feet and working my way up, but the way she's rubbing her thighs and moaning, not to mention clutching my feathered hair tells me that might just be torture for her.

Her legs are invitingly open, and I only delay long enough to throughly kiss each of her thighs before allowing my eyes to lock on my objective. Sure, I've had my tentacles all over her at previous times, but this is the first time with a humanoid form. With a mouth and tongue. It's different somehow. Might be that it's the first time I can actually see her, while also feeling and tasting.

I press my lips against her slit, and give her a kiss, to which Emily responds by gasping and pressing my head between her slender thighs. That's fine, I don't intend on moving away any time soon. I slip my tongue between her lips, tasting the slightly sour flavor of her excitement. She twitches and moans into her fist as my tongue probes at the edge of her depths, with frequent flicks up to her tiny clit.

Her love juices are flowing out of her, and she's practically convulsing with each of my motions, until she cries out and arches her back, pressing my head tighter between her legs, her fists gripping my feathers in uncontrolled need as her body spasms in release.

Japanese mythology claims something about Tori gates being the entrance to paradise or something like that. This I am confident is untrue. Paradise lies in looking at the face of a tween in the throes of ecstasy from between her tightly clamped thighs.

Eventually she comes down and relaxes, freeing my head. "Haaa…" She breathes deeply, and tries to say something but can't seem to get her tongue in order.

I crawl back up to look her in the eyes, and lick her juices of my lips before kissing her hot cheeks. "Somebody enjoyed that a lot…"

"Mmmm… that… amazing…" Emily mumbles, her eyes a bit unfocused. She still manages to throw an arm over my neck. I don't resist and allow myself to be pulled down into a searing kiss.

"Ready for the main act Emily?" I ask, once she has to take a breath.

She shudders a bit, her hands going down to her soaked pussy, and her eyes run down my body between us to rest on my dick. "Y-yeah…"

I grin and move further up the bed to bring my dick in line with her wet slit. I feel Emily's hand on me, and the heat of her body against the tip. I push slightly, and feel the soft flesh of her pussy spread before me.

Something catches my attention nearby, something feels… wrong, but I ignore it as Emily mewls into my chest as I slowly and carefully push deeper into her tight vice-like slit. "Alright Emily? Tell me if-"

I'm interrupted when the door bursts open, and Face charges in with a huge pistol that I've never seen before. I instantly and automatically try to focus on him, but… there's nothing there?

That's not Face.

The distraction of realization costs me, as the pistol is leveled at my head and I barely manage to react at all before the there's a spark of muzzle flash and I feel an impact. Even with the incredibly short time, I at least manage to move enough that the shot does not hit true, and a burning trail of pain lances through my shoulder and upper chest, before passing out the other side.

Emily screams, and I waste another moment checking that she's unharmed. Wasted time because I know exactly where the bullet went already, and she is indeed quit fine.

I roll off of her — my dick slipping out of the tight grip of her pussy — and in the direction of our attacker, whose visage has changed, and is no somebody else.

A… a spitting image of the Hollywood G-Man, black business suit, sunglasses, ear piece with a wire running down to his collar, gloved hand still holding the pistol with it's smoking barrel. Is it some sort of cosmic joke that right after I confess to technically being an alien to Emily, the Men in Black show up?

"Zis was just business yes? Kill ze biotinker, easy money. But ze girl? Ze girl too little. Now zis is a… as you say… pleasure, yes?" He says in… is that a French accent I hear?

I've no interest in… debating with him, not with my dick hanging out and Emily scrambling to hide behind the bed. At least that thickness of Creep ought to be decently bullet proof to small arms.

I charge a across the room at the man, and there's a hint of surprise on his face at my speed, but then he vanishes. Completely, even my creep doesn't feel any sign of being stood on.

Fucking teleporters, just how many does Australia have? "Shit, so they know about my location now…" I grumble. Government teleporters knowing where my bunker is might be a problem. First thing first, I turn to go check on Emily.

From one moment to the next I feel someone standing behind on the Creep, just barely giving me time to start a turn leading with a clawed fist… Ah, my shoulders are fucked up by the bullet, something grinds in my arm as I try to swing it around.

A small folding blade gouges a shallow groove in the skin of my arm. Abzu might not have carapace, but his skin is still tough enough to be at least knife resistant. The cut is barely enough to cause bleeding compared to the much more grievous entry and exit wounds from the bullet. My arms might be fucked for a bit, but I still have four heavy tentacles, and even as the man disappears again, I lash out. One impacts against something solid, and I hear a grunted "Oof, Tabernack!" from the air. I grasp in the area further trying to grab him, but find nothing.

Not a teleporter then… at least not only. A stranger, that would explain not being able to feel him on the creep if it's some conceptual level bullshit. I hold still and try to focus on feeling anything, detecting the man in any way. Nothing, just the burning path of torn flesh through Abzu, but thankfully that's… not fatal as it probably would be for my original human body. Still a bit crippling though.

A stealth focused Stranger… Assassin even? How long has he been skulking around? Has he reported on what he's found? What else has he done while here? My mind lurches at the idea of explosives around my Overmind body, or my hatcheries. Not something I can leave to my organisms to check on without direct oversight, and I almost lose focus on Abzu in my hurry to check.

No, right if I ditch Abzu, I'll lose sight of the cock blocking asshole, and who know what he'll get up to. At least I know he's in this room right now… I think. Besides, Emily is in the room too and who knows what he'd do to her if I left.

There! Across the room is the Stranger again, his pistol already leveled at my head. I know, because there's something distinctly unsettling about seeing right up the barrel at the tip of the bullet inside and knowing the holder fully intends to fire. Thankfully my organisms reaction times are better then natural biology, and combined with the fractional alert from the Creep, I manage to throw myself to the side in the moment it takes the man to squeeze the trigger. Pain lances across the side of my skull, but it's just a graze.

That's twice in less then twelve hours since Abzu was awake, that I've been in combat or combat adjacent with him. Combat form just jumped much higher on the priorities list.

I scan the empty room again, body tense, muscles primed to throw myself out of the line of fire… or at the intruder, if he shows up within reach. Even if I have to eat a bullet to get my hands- er… tentacles on him. There, a jab of sensation! No, that's just Emily, she's curled up on the floor and jabbing my Creep rather incessantly. I can hear something coming from her, but I'm not sure if it's suppressed sobbing or a whisper. Even for Abzu's senses it's too low, and Creep is better at feeling then hearing.

I shake my head and focus on the problem at hand. Alright, invisible… no undetectable. There's got to be a reason he wore a disguise to begin with. Yeah he had to open the door, but if he'd just waited till we were done and caught me out in the hallway… My response time is just barely keeping up with his disappearing trick when I'm on the alert. Maybe a limit to how long he can stay invisible for?

I could bring a couple dozen Zerglings into the room, but depending on the details of his Stranger power, that might just give him more places to hide. Instead I cross to the rooms door, and slam it shut. Nobody leaves until this guy is dead.

Simultaneously with the slam of the door, I almost miss the telltale warning from my Creep, and am just a little slow to move. This time the bullet skims along the muscles of my abdomen. Of course the Stranger vanishes again before I can cross the room to him. I stop in the center to reduce the possible distance and wait.

"You are very fast. Killing with ze headshot is clean, but I find that if ze brute bleeds… it dies to gut shot too. Eventually." Comes the voice from… there!

I throw myself at where the voice came from, tentacles spread in a net trying to catch him, only to detect his presence off to the side when he appears again. Despite being out of position to grab at him, I still manage to drop, rolling across the ground under the shots trajectory — my shoulders burning with the motion.

I come up to my feet just as Emily gives a cry, I can feel through the creep that the bullet embedded itself unpleasantly close to her huddled form.

Shit, okay, so keep playing dodge the invisible possible teleporting assassin while making sure a stray shot doesn't hit Emily! While there may or may not be explosives rigged all over the bunker and me.

"My apologies little fille, please stay where you are while I deal with zis… creature." Comes the mans voice. I don't bother trying to attack where I think it came from. Either his stranger power works on that too, or he's got some other way to speak from where he isn't Or he's very quick on the reposition.

Oh, well… thank Ziz for heroic types, at least I don't have to worry about him using Emily as a hostage. I'm still going to feed him to the hatcheries for upsetting her.

No, no I'm not, I'm going to turn him into a worm and see if I can reproduce the effect from Howitzer, even if it does knock me out for a few hours. And set me on fire. I really really want invisible teleporting organisms.

Presence there! He fires, I dodge, the bullet passes uncomfortably close, he disappears before I can close on him. Then there's a cough from the side. I lash out out without thought, trying to grab something. The tip of a tentacle grazes against damp cloth, and then it's gone. Another cough, stronger… wetter, and a pool of blood soaks into my Creep. No, not blood. Dissolved cellular matter.

I grin and advance on the uncontrolled coughing and gagging. The air flickers, and the g-man appears just ahead of me, on his knees and clutching at himself with hands that no longer have fingers. He looks up at me with terror and pain writ on his face, and I think he tries to say something but all that comes out is another wet gurgle. Then his face sloughs off, and within seconds he collapses into a puddle of nutritious fluid and bones.

Emily emerges from behind the bed and stomps over to the pile of bones. "Fuck you! You killed the mood!" She shouts, giving the skull a swift kick. Rather then fly off, it splatters as even the bones begin to melt down under the full effect of her power cranked up to maximum output.